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Charles Jardine's London Marathon blog: week seven - run hard, eat cake!

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Fishing 4 Schools founder and director Charles Jardine will run the Virgin Money London Marathon on 23 April for Fishing 4 Schools. You can sponsor him through JustGiving.

It's been a tough week, an itsy bitsy type of week, with lots of stuff on that's meant it was hard to fit in my training.

If you remember last Friday I was off to Green Park for a casting demo in aid of Red Nose Day. It was a beautiful day and lovely to be in the park. Quite a few people asked us what we were doing and why, so it was great to meet them, but mostly we seemed to be entertaining the police presence which is omnipresent in London at the moment.

Then on Saturday I had a long and really enjoyable run of 16 or 18K at Draycott. I was there helping to train the England Youth Fly Fishing team, so whilst they were off in boats on the water I took the opportunity for a run around, but keeping a weather eye on the team and scooting down to the water's edge to shout helpful hints to them!

Monday was a tough gym day – I spent two hours in the Downton gym and did two circuits sessions. Then on Tuesday it was back to extreme yoga. Of all the training I'm doing at the moment I think the yoga is far and away the most arduous activity I do. Run by an Aussie girl, this is not gentle stretching, but loads of repetitions and fitness work. As I write this on Friday I can still feel it!

On Wednesday and Thursday I had to go to London, so no time for training, but on Friday I was out with the Downton Running Club again. These guys really bring it home to me just how good they are and how poor I am. There's chasm of difference between us! We were doing uphill sprints, intervals, side steps, butt kicks and then the chain gang, rotational sprints but up a hill! It was truly not for the faint hearted - though I did enjoy the session in the coffee shop afterwards. They were living up to their motto - run hard, eat cake!

I'm meeting up with the Downton gang again on Sunday for a run through the New Forest (pictured) and I'm really looking forward to it. I love running in the forest with Midge, but running in a group is far easier and more dynamic. I can benchmark myself against the others and really have to step up to keep up.

All this training is hard work, but so worth it when I see the money that you are still adding to my fundraising total. My JustGiving total now stands at £1,828.58 and I have that amazing £3k donation, plus cheques keep coming from my lovely friends all over the world, particularly the USA. These are people to whom I mentioned that I'm running the Marathon when I was over there giving talks and they keep sending over cheques of $50 or $100.

You are all such amazingly generous people and you make me strive harder every day to not let you down on 23 April.

Until next week, yours aye

Charles
Please Sponsor Charles if you can on his Just Giving page.

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